Key Takeaways
- A dog inside a parked pickup accidentally fired a loaded shotgun, injuring a woman at a red light in Scottsbluff.
- Police discovered a damaged truck with a shotgun improperly left loose in the cab, which led to the incident.
- Under Nebraska law, it is illegal to have a loaded shotgun in a vehicle on a public highway, which was violated in this case.
- The injured woman’s condition was not life-threatening, and she received medical treatment after the incident.
- The article emphasizes the importance of safe firearms handling and holding individuals accountable for negligence.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. — A loose dog and a loaded shotgun made for one of the strangest negligent discharges I have ever covered. On Saturday, a dog inside a parked pickup at a Scottsbluff convenience store set off a shotgun that had a live shell in the chamber. The blast tore through the passenger door and sent a pellet into a woman who happened to be sitting at a red light with her arm out the window.
Scottsbluff police were dispatched to the Short Stop at 2002 Avenue I just after noon. The first call came in as a BB gun. By the time officers got there, they were looking at a truck with an attached camper, a blown-out passenger-side door panel, and damage consistent with a shotgun pattern.
According to KNOP News2, the truck owner had pulled in and his passenger was standing right outside the front passenger door. A dog in the back seat moved from one side of the cab to the other. That movement alone was enough to trip the trigger on a loaded shotgun sitting inside the vehicle.
At that same moment, a woman was stopped at the light on Avenue I with her arm resting on the window frame. One pellet struck her in the upper right arm. Police say her injury was not believed to be life-threatening, and a family member drove her to Regional West Medical Center for treatment. The case remains under investigation.
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Set the cartoon-level absurdity aside for a second. This was preventable in every way that matters. A loaded shotgun should not be loose in the cab of a vehicle. It should not be sitting where a dog can step on it. And under Nebraska law, it should not have been loaded at all while the truck was on a public highway.
Nebraska Revised Statute 37-522 makes it unlawful to have or carry “any shotgun having shells in either the chamber, receiver, or magazine in or on any vehicle on any highway.” A violation is a Class III misdemeanor with a minimum fifty-dollar fine. One point I want to make clear for permit holders: Nebraska’s concealed handgun permit does not cover this. The permit applies to handguns. A loaded long gun in the cab is on its own legal track, and that track ends at 37-522.
I support the right to keep and bear arms as much as anyone reading this. The Second Amendment is a civil right, and I treat it that way. But that right does not exempt any of us from the basic rules of safe firearms handling. Treat every gun as loaded. Keep the muzzle in a safe direction. Know what is on the other side of your target. And do not store a loaded shotgun loose in a vehicle where a dog, a kid, a pothole, or a sliding bag can fire it.
The woman at the traffic light did nothing wrong. She paid for somebody else’s choices, and that is the part of this story that is not funny at all.
